Crown Paints bonus issue stirs market

Crown Paints led the gainers at the stock market last week on the back of a bonus share issue announcement. The stock rose 35.3 per cent to Sh138 even after disappointing full-year 2014 results which saw net profit drop by a massive 91 per cent to Sh19.7 million compared to Sh213.8 million in 2013 [...]

Equity named best bank in Kenya at fete

Equity Bank was on Friday crowned the best bank in Kenya after it bagged nine out of the 25 awards on offer at the Think Business 2015 Banking Awards. It beat rival KCB to second position with Barclays coming third among the Tier 1 category banks. The awards reflected the neck and neck race between Equity and KCB, which bagged five awards, to see the two sweep 14 between them [...]

Bourse bond turnover plummets, seen falling further

Bond turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) plunged 39 per cent in April to Sh25 billion, which is the lowest monthly amount since December 2013. It was the second consecutive month trading in the fixed-income market was experiencing a slowdown. In March, bonds worth Sh42 billion were transacted, down 5.7 per cent from the previous month. Market players said the fall was due to the tight liquidity in the market in the month as the Treasury withdrew billions of shillings through the primary bond market [...]

KCB eyes Sh28bn debt injection

KCB Group is this year targeting a cash injection of $300 million (Sh28.2 billion) in debt from development finance institutions (DFIs), in what will see its long-term loan book more than double. The funds will be used for onward lending to big-ticket borrowers in different sectors of the country’s economy [...]

No respite in M-Pesa consumer tariffs

Telecoms operator Safaricom is negotiating a reduction of proprietary fees it pays UK firm Vodafone for M-Pesa even as it rules out any easing of consumer tariffs for the popular mobile money transfer service. Mr Collymore said that the negotiations with Vodafone were in early stages and that a decision as to whether Vodafone will accept to lower the fees or retain it will be known in July [...]

Tatu City bank loans audit sparks fresh directors row

The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to audit offshore loans borrowed by directors of the Sh240 billion Tatu City project has sparked a new dispute between local and foreign shareholders of the real estate venture. The local partners claim that their foreign counterparts want to kick them out of the project so as to freely plunder assets and capital of Tatu City and Kofinaf-- the firm that owns the 2,400 acres of land on which the project is to be built [...]

Pension schemes benefit from large counters at NSE

Price gains by the large counters at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) have shielded pension schemes from a bearish stock market, rewarding them with an increase in the value of equity portfolios for the first quarter of the year. According to the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), pension schemes prefer sectors such as banking, manufacturing and construction when making equity investments [...]

South African brewer gets two Kwal board seats after buyout

South African brewing company Distell has secured two directorship positions at the Kenya Wine Agencies (Kwal) in a boardroom shake-up following its buyout of a 26 per cent stake in the company from the State [...]